At Last Outfitters strives to provide you with education, resources, and motivation to seek outside adventure, at last. As a child, and as adults, we have been fascinated with quantifiable goals for outdoor adventure such as the number of days in the field hunting per year, number of nights spent in a tent, number of rivers floated, camping trips in every month of the year, etc. Some years we get close to these goals, other years we have been far away. What is clear though, is that focusing on the planning process and goal setting makes us much more likely to achieve the goals. Norman Vincent Peale said “shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land upon the stars”.
SMART Goals for Hunting?
Goal setting and planning go hand in hand. There are many resources on goal setting. The concept of “SMART” goals was first thought of in 1981, and has rose in popularity since then. These goals were touted in the corporate world during annual reviews and planning. Goals had to be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. These seem to lack direct applicability to outdoor adventure and it feels awkward trying to apply a corporate method to our passion.
Zig Ziglar’s goal setting always made way more sense and still has some overlap with the SMART goals. The steps in setting goals from the iconic book titled “See your at the Top” are 1) define where you currently are, 2) commit to the goal, 3) be specific, 4) set a big goal – but reachable, 5) make it long range, 6) list obstacles in the way of achieving the goal, 7) break goal into smaller segments, 8) mentally prepare, 9) be convinced you can reach the goal, and 10) visualize as already reaching the goal [1].
With these two goal setting frameworks in mind, we’ve found several principles that lend themselves nicely to outdoor adventure. We won’t step through each part of this goal setting process, but will touch on a few points in this article that we use consistently.
Know where you are starting.
When looking at a year of adventure ahead it is exciting. It’s easy to dream about big hunts and trophies. But at the same time, we need to be realistic about where we are in life. It’s been said, not sure by who, “I can get anywhere I want in the world provided that I know where I am currently at”. So, figure out where you are at. For example, your physical abilities, your time commitments, and your financial resources. It may not be realistic for a fresh college graduate to hire a stone sheep guide in BC for fourteen days. But it may be realistic to plan a fourteen-day hunting trip in the west. Likewise, it may not be realistic for a dad with three kids, a wife, mortgage, etc. to leave for two weeks on an Alaska moose hunt. But he may have some funds to hire a guide for a five-day deer hunt. Define where you are and see how far the gap is between where you are and where you want to go. Make the goal large and exciting enough to drive you. And make it long-term. It’s ok to have a three or five-year goal.
Be specific.
Being as specific as possible in your goal helps you identify what you really want in the outdoor adventure. Do you specifically want to get a limit of grouse, a four-by-four mule deer, a herd bull elk, spend a certain amount of time in the woods, test your mental and physical abilities, etc. Being as specific as possible will set you up for success in achieving the goal. Other items to think about when being specific is to put a date on it, specifically when you want to achieve the goal.
List the obstacles, people, resources you need to overcome.
Listing the obstacles, you must overcome to achieve your goal is a very important step. If your goal is to backpack hunt for mountain goats and you are 350lbs with no hunting experience you’ve got some obstacles to work on. You need to get in shape, and you need to obtain the skills and gear for the activity. Plan it out. The obstacles will allow you to break the goal down into logical smaller chunks. If you need to lose 80 lbs prior to a hunt, a smaller goal will be to get in shape. This, yet again, will be split into smaller weekly goals of say losing 1-2 lbs per week.
Plan of Action and Checkpoints
The plan of action to achieve your goal falls directly out of listing the obstacles to your goal and breaking the goal into smaller portions. In the losing weight example, we have smaller weekly goals of losing 1-2 lbs, and our plan of action may be to drink a gallon of water a day, get daily exercise, track calories to maintain a deficit. These are the specific steps that you will follow to meet your goal.
Having checkpoints written down is another important aspect of the goal setting process. If the hunt is in October, and it is January 1st, we have 10 months to work with. Trying to lose 80 lbs in 10 months is a huge goal. If, say, in March after two months we haven’t lost 16 lbs, we are not on pace. This would be a logical checkpoint to change our plan of action. Perhaps we hire a coach at this time if we are falling behind.
We hope this framework helps you out as you plan your outdoor adventure goals. If you want more information on outdoor adventure, and an awesome place to start, check out our article titled A New Take on Backpack Hunting. You can also drop us a line if you have any questions on goal setting for outdoor adventures.
[1] See You at the Top. Zig Ziglar. 1998. Pelican Publishing Company. Pg. 175.
At Last Outfitters 